The Chichester Festival Theatre production of The Resistible Rise Of Arturo Ui will transfer to the Duchess theatre later this year, with double Olivier Award-winning actor Henry Goodman reprising his role as the title character.
Set during the Great Depression of the 1930s, Bertolt Brecht’s epic parable about the rise of Adolf Hitler, which charts the actions of Chicago gangster Arturo Ui as he seizes upon the chance to run protection rackets for workers and businesses in order to gain absolute power over the city, will play from 18 September (press night 25 September) to 7 December.
Goodman, who is due to appear in Lindsay Posner’s production of The Winslow Boy at the Old Vic theatre, which begins previews this evening, has enjoyed an extensive stage career, having starred in productions including Duet For One, Yes, Prime Minister, Fiddler On The Roof and Chicago, as well as The Merchant Of Venice and Assassins, for which he collected his pair of Oliviers.
The acclaimed actor will be joined in the production by Keith Baxter (Corpse! at the Apollo theatre) Michael Feast (West End productions of The King’s Speech, Pygmalion and Plague Over England), William Gaunt (Henry IV Parts I And II at Shakespeare’s Globe and An Inspector Calls at the National Theatre), and Joe McGann (Oliver! in the West End).
Directed by the Chichester Festival Theatre’s Artistic Director Jonathan Church, The Resistible Rise Of Arturo Ui will return to Chichester’s Minerva theatre for a limited run from 15 August to 14 September before making its journey to London’s West End, opening at the Duchess theatre following another West End transfer, Alan Bennett’s Untold Stories, which plays from 22 March to 15 June.
It will become the latest in a string of hit productions from the West Sussex venue to make the journey to the capital in recent years, following productions including Pygmalion, Love Story, Top Girls, Sweeney Todd, Singin’ In The Rain and, coming this summer, Private Lives.